


Storytime with Enid and Lydia

by SadieSwensonsEarmuffs



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Carl Is Alive AU, Female Friendship, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-31 20:49:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21151988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadieSwensonsEarmuffs/pseuds/SadieSwensonsEarmuffs
Summary: Enid selflessly gives up her time to help teach at the Alexandria school, but doesn’t end up teaching who she expected to teach.





	Storytime with Enid and Lydia

**Author's Note:**

> Set in an AU where Carl lived past s8e9, broke up with Enid at some point and replaced Henry when it comes to Lydia's plot. And then didn't die again. Just roll with it, guy ain't even in this story.

“_Ouuut… _Of the… The, uh… Egg?”

“That’s right.”

“Came a… A _ tinny _…”

“Tiny.”

“Tiny. And vurr… Veeery hug… Hung-ery…”

Lydia’s eyes narrowed and her fingernails bit into the palm of her clenched hands as she stared down at the confusingly spelled word laid out in front of her. She could ask for help, which was what she had been encouraged to do, but so far it had only been a source of extra embarrassment. So here she sat, staring at the word, waiting for her mind to piece it together. 

The most frustrating part was that she knew what that thing was. A big colourful picture of it was right there taking up most of the pages. She’d seen them before… But couldn’t remember her mother ever telling her what they were called. They weren’t really edible, or at least they’d never tried it, so the most she ever knew about them was that if Alpha caught her playing with them she was probably in for punishment.

“Cat-”

“No!” Lydia insisted, eyes shooting up from her book to her teacher. “I’ve got this, it’s… Just let me think.”

Enid sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in slight annoyance.

She may have been known around Alexandria as a nurse, but there wasn’t always a constant need for someone needing to be looked after. She supposed in this world that could be seen as a miracle in itself, but it did sometimes lead to her being asked to fill in where people were needed. Namely, when the only teacher at the school needed to rush to Hilltop for a family emergency, Gabriel asked her if she’d be so kind as to supervise the kids who were studying. 

She hadn’t initially realized said “kids” included her ex-boyfriend’s current girlfriend. Enid didn’t really have any too legitimate reasons to resent Lydia. She was four years older than her, well past an adult versus her still being in her teens, she _ should _ be the better person over all this. And her and Carl had broken up ages ago! She shouldn’t be getting antsy around who he had decided to get with now.

There was that little, terrible inkling inside her that really wanted for someone to get a really bad coughing fit right now or something.

As Enid thought to herself Lydia suddenly threw her hands up in the air in frustration, bringing them down hard on the table only moments after with a loud, hopefully satisfying _ bang _. Seems she still hadn’t figured it out.

“Fine.” The dark-haired girl said with a huff. “What is it?”

“Caterpillar.”

“CATERPILLAR!” Lydia exclaimed, throwing her arms up once again and letting the rest of her body follow suit as she jumped up out of her chair. Enid recoiled slightly at the outburst, watching in shock as her student awkwardly stumbled in place. Lydia searched for something to vent her alphabet-driven rage into before settling on kicking the chair she’d been sitting on and stomping out of the building.

Enid glanced over at Gracie, who was sitting diligently in her seat reading _ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. _Hadn’t heard a peep from her all lesson. If only that could be the norm.

“Um… Just… Wait here.” She instructed Gracie, who looked back down at her book as Enid got up and followed Lydia out the door. She was expecting to have to track down and chase after the younger girl, but Enid found her pacing angrily only a few feet away from the front door.

“Lydia!” She called out to the younger girl half expecting her to run away, but she just folded her arms and waited for her to walk over. Enid wasn't sure what to say at first, and just spent a moment staring down at her. "Look... I get that this is hard for you, but you don't have to get angry like that. You just have to keep-"

"You don't _get _what this is like for me." Lydia cut her off. She wasn't yelling anymore, but her voice had lowered down to something of a growl and the arms tucked tightly across her chest didn't give off very friendly vibes. Angry Lydia was something Enid hadn't seen before, but cold and enclosed Lydia? That was something pretty much everyone at Alexandria had seen at one point or another. Aside from a select few, it was often all they got. People didn't really blame her given where she'd come from, but it also didn't help people warm up to her. Which was a problem, given they already mistrusted her. Because of where she came from. It was a vicious cycle. "You're normal. You don't know what it's like to be so out of your depth surrounded by something so normal." She rubbed her arm. "I know now that _this_ is what's normal, not what I had, but... I've got so much catching up to do. With the nine year old!" She pointed back towards the school, where Gracie still probably sat reading.

"...Gracie _is_ a very good reader for her age!" Enid commented, which only made Lydia roll her eyes and look away.

"You don't have to pretend to want to help me."

"What?"

"I know how you feel about me." Lydia said, her eyes snapping back to Enid's. "Carl's told me about you. And I've seen the looks you give me. When you hang around people as quiet as the Whisperers you learn to read faces. When they've got their masks off, anyway..."

The last few words was mostly a muttering to herself, and Enid barely caught it over her own thoughts. She wanted to refute what the girl was saying, but deep down she knew it was at least a little true. But she still shook her head; she wasn't going to let those thoughts influence how she treated her. In a way, she remembered all too well to back when she was a moody teenager who just huffed and puffed at whatever angsty thoughts were in her head.

"I don't know what you saw, but... Whatever it was, I didn't mean it." She insisted. 

“But I swear I don’t hold anything against you ‘cause of Carl. It’s been ages, and I’m over him. And even if I wasn’t it wouldn’t be fair on you.” Lydia didn’t seem like she was entirely convinced.

“Why did you break up with him?” She asked, as if sussing out exactly whether or not there were some threads of longing still between them. Enid bit her lip and glanced away, debating whether or not to tell her the whole truth. She hadn’t told it to too many people… But she didn’t want this bad blood between her and Lydia to grow any worse. Maybe it’d be a nice icebreaker.

“Lets just say it took being with a guy for me to realize that I was gay.”

Almost immediately Lydia’s face softened, her expression going from one of suspicion to shock to embarrassment in a mere second. The slight blush that suddenly blossomed across her pale cheeks only made her reaction all the funnier.

“Oh.” Lydia said, all the anger dissipated from her voice and replaced with growing nerves.

“Yeah, after a while I realized I was just forcing it ‘cause I thought it was what I was supposed to do. Still care about the guy a lot but I’m strictly into girls now.” She said proudly, feeling happy about so casually talking about it with someone. 

“I’m sorry I… Assumed.”

“It’s okay, Lydia. As I said, I still care about him, and... Well you know he warmed to you a lot quicker than the rest of us did. I just needed some time to trust you.” She reached up and put a hand on Lydia’s shoulder. “But I do now. I can see how hard it is for you here and I don’t want to make it any worse.”

The younger girl looked up at Enid with a weak smile.

“I guess we should be getting back to the lesson.”

Enid shook her head.

“Nah. We’ll get back to it later.” She said, squeezing Lydia’s shoulder before sliding her hand off. “Think you and Gracie would be more interested in some training?”

Lydia’s smile turned into a full on grin.

“Finally, something I’m good at.”


End file.
